We are all aware of the barbaric acts of ISIS, al Qaeda and the others flying the Black Flag. Sadly their violence continues to kill innocents around the world and here at home. They fight in the cause of Jihad to impose their totalitarian religion on all people. But they are not the only ones working toward that goal. There are other Islamist groups who seem much less dangerous on the surface, but actually represent an even more insidious threat to free western society. They seek to use our very freedoms as weapons against us.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a name that should be known by freedom-loving people worldwide. It must also be feared by those who wish to silence criticism of the way that Islam is practiced today. Hirsi Ali has earned her right to criticize the practice of Islam from inside it. As a teenager, she was a hijab-wearing supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. She was educated by a fiery Saudi-sponsored imam. She supported the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist program even though she had been subjected to genital mutilation in defiance of the wishes of her father, but at the hands of her pious grandmother. She knows this way of life from having lived within its heart.
In Europe, though, she came into contact with new ideas. She obtained a degree in political science, and began to study philosophy. Her study led her to abandon her faith, and to field strong criticisms of Islam’s treatment of women, of sexual minorities, and the brutality of its punishments. In return, she was sentenced to death according to sharia law. Even in America, Muslim imams have called for her head — literally, not figuratively.
Even just the facts of her life stand as a rebuke to the practices of radical, political Islam. Yet one of the key voices of that radical, political Islam has chosen to slander her. In its forthcoming report on “Islamophobia,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) accuses Hiris Ali of “anti-Muslim and anti-Constitution rhetoric.” CAIR is the propaganda arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course they are unwilling to distinguish between criticisms of Islamic practice and being “anti-Muslim.” The charge that she is “anti-Constitution,” however, is ridiculous on its face. What they offer as evidence is that she proposed an amendment to the Constitution on the subject of Islam. Amendments to the Constitution are made according to Article V of the Constitution. There’s nothing “anti-Constitution” about following the Constitution. Proposing changes to it is perfectly acceptable as long as the Article V practices are lawfully obeyed.
Instead of fielding this nonsense, CAIR should be heeding her criticisms. On her foundation’s website, she features quotes from women who have benefited from her criticisms of Islam. These quotes aren’t from tribal Pakistan or Africa. They’re from women in places like Corpus Christi, Texas. Ohio. Pennsylvania. They are from women who have directly encountered, here in America, the dangers of honor killings or genital mutilation.
Someday, her message will get through the smoke that CAIR is trying to throw up around it. If they have not reformed themselves when that day comes, they will have to deal with an America that has learned to see what they are defending.
[Hirsi Ali] said she had Muslim friends who had been subjected to forced marriages and female genital mutilation, and who had been forced to wear a veil. Ali herself was subjected to female genital mutilation as a child. She urged people not to be “squeamish” about criticising those practices.
“This is what is happening to Muslim women,” she said. “If you have young girls who are subjected to forced marriage, it is not a marriage, it’s an arranged rape. It is a forced rape and I wish we were not squeamish about it. We were not squeamish about slavery, we were not squeamish about eradicating apartheid, and I wish that is one thing we would not be squeamish about.”
You can’t legitimately argue that a woman concerned about the suffering of Muslim women is “anti-Muslim.” She is the one on the side of these women. Sooner or later, her message will break through.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Obama administration have joined in endorsing a heckler’s veto on freedom of speech in violation of America’s most deeply-held political principles.
In sharia, the word translated as “slander” is the Arabic word ghiba. It means to say anything about someone that they do not like, even though it is true.
Ambassador Ron Dermer said that the Southern Poverty Law Center claims to defend tolerance for those who "look different," but works to suppress those who "think different."